The lights dropped low at Rock Island’s Circa 21 Speakeasy on Oct. 10 as “She’s My Witch” started to play. Out of the darkness, Kitty Bardot stepped into the spotlight, her confidence instantly taking over the room. From that moment on, the crowd was hooked. Laughter, cheers and applause filled the space as the second […]
Eastern Iowa Arts & Entertainment
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An early Velvet Underground ‘protégé,’ Jonathan Richman wrote his way into punk history while trying to troll the hippies
Jonathan Richman can still pinpoint how the Velvet Underground transformed his life with their collar-grabbing sound back in 1967. “It was on record and it was that drone! Oh my God! They changed everything!” As a teenager, he saw the band over 80 times and was a regular presence before and after gigs. “If the […]
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Review: Lost Woods Music Festival reached new heights in 2025, offering the ultimate escape in a Cedar Falls forest
Returning to the Cedar Falls forest for the third iteration of Lost Woods Music Festival felt like stepping into another dimension—a place where we could escape the chaos and stress of the real world for a single night of bliss. The brainchild of Iowa’s hardest working musicians, the Cedar Falls based indie pop group Salt Fox, Lost Woods 2025 went bigger and better while retaining its authentic, intimate, identity.
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Review: Dubuque poses for the eighth Bluff Strokes Paint Out, a week of open-air art-making
The streets of Dubuque became more creatively engaging when 51 jury selected artists from across the country converged on the city for the Bluff Strokes 2025 Paint Out Sept. 28 through Oct. 4. With artists setting up easels around town, competing for awards and engaging the local community through the act of live art making, […]
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Film critic and frequent ‘Filmspotting’ podcast guest Michael Phillips talks adaptations, Trump fatigue and the Refocus film that feels most pertinent
Michael Phillips, former film critic at the Chicago Tribune, is coming back to Iowa City for the Refocus Film Festival. There, he will join UI Professor and Filmspotting co-host Adam Kempenaar for a live taping of the podcast Friday, October 10. Little Village met with Phillips to chat about the festival and reflect on his long career in a fickle field.
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Refocus returns on Thursday! Here’s a guide to 18 films on the festival lineup
FilmScene’s Refocus Film Festival returns to Iowa City Oct. 9-12 with a full platter of cinematic goodness. We asked our resident film scribes Ariana Martinez and Benji McElroy to share the shows they’re most excited to see. We also broke down the lineup by mood, with only a little fighting about what fit where. Click […]
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Review: Des Moines Symphony’s debut concert featuring Viet Cuong was a goosebump-inducing start to an ambitious season
Des Moines Symphony kicked off their 88th season with the aptly titled debut concert Triumph–Tchaikovsky 5 on Sept. 27 and 28. Their program featured a stunning composition by a rising American composer sandwiched in between two beloved masterpieces hailing from Russia, a true celebration of the old and the new. The symphony embraced technology on […]
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Review: Alto and bass flutes converse at a masterful recital by Rose Bishop and Heather Neuenschwander
Rose Bishop and Heather Neuenschwander, two classical flutists who recently released the duo album Unseen/Unheard, performed a release recital on Sept. 26 at the James Theater. The album, released on the same day by Strange Moon Records, collects several pieces commissioned by the duo from contemporary composers. It boasts the distinction of being the first-ever […]
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‘I need to say something to be seen’: Courtney Marie Andrews unravels her writing process as artist in residence of the first Iowa City Songwriters Festival
A multidisciplinary artist from Phoenix, Arizona, Andrews was the artist in residence of the first edition of the Iowa City Songwriters Festival (ICSF), which took place at the top of September. Andrews uploaded her first songs on the internet and experienced the first reactions from listeners. “That’s not punk music, people wrote, that’s folk.” At that age she had no idea folk music would become so important for her.
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Review: Sharon Van Etten confirms she’s a witch leaning towards the light at Iowa City’s Infinite Dream fest
Sharon Van Etten wants to look into your eyes.
I know because she looked in mine when she came to Iowa City to play the first show of her US tour earlier this month. Before she took the stage at the Infinite Dream Festival with her band The Attachment Theory, she joined Nightbitch author Rachel Yoder in conversation at the Old Capitol.
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Review: ‘Cello goblin’ Rushadicus and Iowa City’s Weapon X brought an electric circus to the Close House
The music that is popular, the artists that are famous and the commercial music industry that promotes them, exists in a completely different world from the music Public Space One presents.
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Five questions with Salt Fox’s Andy Fuchtman on the Lost Woods Music Festival, a party turned nonprofit in Cedar Falls
The Lost Woods Music Festival returns to the Cedar Falls area for its third iteration on Saturday. What started as a party in the woods in 2023 has… kept on being a party in the woods, actually. Salt Fox, the band behind the fest, have resisted the scope creep that plagues so many other festival […]
